Margot Cunningham and Pierre La Plant's garden
Richmond
Lot size: 400 sq. ft. front, 300 sq. ft. parking strip, 100 sq. ft. side, and 400 sq. ft. back gardens on tour, 70% native
Garden Age: Garden was installed in stages, beginning 15 years ago.
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: New This Year!
Showcase feature: If you have visted Native Here Nursery in Berkeley you have probably met Margot, who is there Saturday mornings helping shoppers find natives local to their areas. Working with local native plants as she does has colored Margot’s vision of what a garden should be. Her unique summer watering philosophy (she doesn’t) means that plants are either hardy, or they’re compost. Our state grass, the delicate purple needlegrass, reseeds itself readily in the front garden. Chinese houses, lupines, and buttercups brighten the garden in spring. A good gardening neighbor, Margot shares native plant seeds, and she has helped neighbors Paul and Anita (also on the Tour) choose plants from Native Here.
Other garden attractions:
- Walk to Paul Carman/Anita Pereira’s and to Dave Drummond’s gardens.
- Keep your eyes peeled for the wild boar, grizzly bear, herons, iguanas, snakes, and grasshoppers that reside here.
- Before the native revival the garden was composed of juniper hedges, bamboo thickets, and huge camellias.
- The California Native Plant Society will be selling native plant reference books and posters.
Gardening for Wildlife: Hooded orioles, towhees (which love the needlegrass seeds), chickadees, mourning doves and Anna’s hummingbirds frequent the garden, as do plenty of native bees. A sharp-shinned hawk perches in the large cedar in the back garden, and watches it all from overhead. Yampah attracts the anise swallowtail butterfly, which lays eggs on this native host plant. In summer the swallowtail’s beautiful caterpillars can be seen happily gnoshing on the yampah flowers. Slender salamanders are found in the garden. Surveillance cameras (really!) allow Pierre and Margot to watch raccoons, opossums, skunks and squirrels frolicking around the back garden.
Native plants sold or available for donation: A few toyons, propagated from berries collected in Pt. Richmond, will be available in exchange for donations to the tour.